Minister KANEKO’s 2022 New Year’s Greeting

KANEKO Yasushi

Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications

Happy New Year to all!

In October last year, I assumed the position of
Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC)
handles wide ranging policy related to the daily lives of people
in Japan, such as local economies, fire departments, informationand communications, the postal system, and statistics. We are
putting every effort into accelerating digital reform of all ofsociety, building revitalized communities, and building national
resiliency with disaster prevention and mitigation, while also
working steadily to realize the “Digital Garden City NationalConcept,” a priority initiative of Prime Minister Kishida.
At the end of last year, a supplementary budget wasestablished, for economic measures based on four main themes.
These include initiating a “new capitalism” and ensuring safety
and security for all citizens. We will work hard, with a sense ofurgency, to advance these initiatives.
Toward digital reform of all of society, we are putting every
effort into realizing the “Digital Garden City National Concept,”
lead by the “MIC Digital Garden City National Concept
Promotion Office.”
Implementing a digital garden city nation will require thedigital infrastructure to be consolidated in all regions, anddigitalization of administration.
Initiatives we will work on include full integration of 5G
networks (fifth-generation mobile communication systems)in regional and urban areas; promotion of “Local 5G,” which
will contribute to solving regional issues; consolidation ofinfrastructure such as optical fiber, which will help revitalize
regional areas and reduce the disparity with urban areas; relocationof data centers, which are extremely centralized around Tokyo, inregional areas; and completion of the “Digital Garden City Super
Highway,” a network that will surround Japan with domestic
submarine optical cables.
We w il l a lso continue to st udy information andcommunication policy, including directions for markets andtechnical development.
Regarding mobile telephone services, we will continue tobuild an environment with competition among operators, withinitiatives to smooth the transition to lower-cost plans, amongothers.
To consolidate 5G and other digital infrastructure quickly, wewill be studying ways for allocating new frequencies for mobile

phone use, including examples from various other countries.
To ensure the efficacy of regulations regarding foreign
investment in the information and communications field, MIC
will quickly consolidate the necessary regulations, including
the final proposals from the upcoming experts meeting, so that
foreign-investment compliance conditions can be understoodand verified, and so that operators and others can comply withthe regulations reliably. At the same time, we will also study thefuture of broadcasting and broadcasting systems in the digital era,including the rapid changes in broadcasting environments, such as
the spread of video viewing over the internet.
To secure a safe and reliable cyberspace, we are increasing
efforts to build environments for analyzing cyber-security
information and for training personnel, while also promoting
security measures taken by telecommunications operators. We
are also advancing comprehensive policies to deal with slander
and defamation on the internet, promoting platform-operator
efforts to delete it, preparing to enact revised regulations onprovider responsibilities, and enhancing educational efforts andconsultation systems.
We will invest even more into research and developmentof advanced technologies such as Beyond 5G, which will bring
low-power digital infrastructure in the future and also quantum
encrypted communication and AI, continuing to bring together
public and private knowledge. We will also use the Beyond 5G
New Business Strategy Center, comprising industry, government
and academia, to obtain intellectual property rights and topromote international standardization.
With changes in the global environment, it is necessary
to guarantee Japan’s economic security, to strengthen ourinternational competitiveness, and to forge deeper internationalcooperation.
To achieve these, we will engage in policy dialog to cultivate
shared understanding on issues such as the use of AI andcirculation of data, and will promote international development of
MIC’s superior technologies and services such as 5G, submarine
optical cables, broadcast content, the postal system, fire-fighting,administrative consultation, and statistics.
Please accept my New Year’s greeting, wishing everyone healthand great happiness in the coming year!
New Year's Day, 2022

New Breeze Winter 2022

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